Keep Calm and Support our Troops!

UPDATE May 9, 2013!

Today's the day I go to Camp Pendleton's Warrior Hope and Care Center to deliver all of the gift cards purchased by readers and by donations from readers and me. Last night, I pretty much cleaned out two grocery stores in Solana Beach (and caused some fuss with the fraud alerts on three credit cards before I realized I needed to call and confirm it actually was a legitimate purchase). 

Here's the first $1,875 in cards I purchased at Vons:

Then I headed across town to Albertson's and bought $2,275 more (I maxed the register out several times at $500):

 And when I got back to my vacation rental, I combined them with the cards I had collected in Kansas City and via snailmail leading up to the big day. In the upper-righthand corner are some certificates for free e-book downloads by some of my author friends who donated them at the Romancing the Plaza book signing in Kansas City. 

I'll still need to pick up a few hundred dollars more to reach my grant total of $5205 (rounded up) collected and purchased gift cards. What a blessing this will be to so many who have given SO much for us. And the contributions came from around the United States, plus one from Canada and two from England! 

Here's the original blog where I announced this project. Next collection will be for an Army facility that treats the wounded and I'm still trying to determine which one I'll use. That drive will be in July/August and at the signing at the Authors After Dark conference in Savannah on August 17. Stay tuned!

Since announcing on Facebook last week that I'm doing a collection of gift cards (and donations) for wounded warriors being treated at Camp Pendleton (where I'll hand deliver the donations in the week after the Romantic Times Convention), I've received the first six donations--and two came from readers in the United Kingdom via PayPal! This started out with me announcing I'd be collecting gift cards while in Kansas City next week--during the the Expo signing I'm doing at Romantic Times Booklovers Convention on May 2 (Sheraton Crown Centre from 4-6 p.m.) and at my separate signing event with 30 other authors called Romancing the Plaza (Marriott Country Club Plaza from 2-5 p.m. Central on May 4). Then I thought why not give my online friends a chance to contribute, too. While time is running out for you to get me a physical gift card by mail (see below), I can accept PayPal donations through at least May 5 using my kallypsomasters@gmail.com account, then I will match that dollar amount up to $3,000, round it up, and purchase Amazon, B&N, Walmart, and other gift cards for online places our warriors can shop for books, video games, movies, etc. 

Why am I doing this? 

Aside from the fact these are the heroes and heroines I love to write about, one of my readers is the mother of a Marine who was treated at Camp Pendleton's Warrior Hope and Care Center after injuries he received in Iraq. She said they soon learned how hard it is for the patients over weekends when there isn't as much therapy work to do. While her son could eventually go home on weekends, he often returned for another week of treatment and therapy only to find there had been several more suicides over the weekend. She said that having movies, video games, and books are a great diversion for them, which sparked this idea to collect gift cards and donations so they can purchase more of these items. That sparked the idea of collecting these cards to take to them.

What You Can Do

Send gift cards in ANY denomination ($10, 20, 25, 40, 50, or more--and in any foreign demonimation, too because Pay Pal will convert it to USD) that can be used at online sellers of books, movies, video games (Amazon, B&N, Wal-Mart, etc.). While I'd prefer to work only with gift cards, if you'd prefer to claim it on your taxes, send a money order or cashier's check (no personal checks, please) made payable to THE WOUNDED WARRIOR REGIMENT and I will deliver those, as well, if received on time (see below).

Where and When to Contribute

* If you can have your donation arrive in my PO box no later than Monday, April 29, please send it to: Kallypso Masters, PO Box 206122, Louisville, KY 40250. (However, any cards that arrive late will be added to the collection total after I return from my Missouri/California travels and will be mailed to my contact at Camp Pendleton's WH&C center later.)

* If you or a friend will be at the May 2 Expo signing Romantic Times Booklovers convention in Kansas City, I'll be collecting at my signing table.
* I'll have two 30-minute sessions in the Club RT room on Friday, May 3--you'll find me at 11:15-11:45 a.m. and 3:45-4:15 and happy to talk, sign, and accept donations at that time.

* If you or a friend will be at the May 4 Romancing the Plaza (Kansas City) book signing (Marriott Country Club Plaza from 2-5 p.m. Central), I'll be collecting there, as well.

* Or you can send a PayPal donation to kallypsomasters@gmail.com--clearly labeled FOR WOUNDED WARRIORS—and I'll purchase the gift cards myself when I get to San Diego County on May 5 to take a break (and WRITE!) while I also prepare for the Rescue Me Sightseeing Tour on May 13 (seats still available!)!

My Ongoing Commitment to the Troops

Because I write about wounded warriors and many of my readers are either veterans, active-duty military personnel, and family members of each, I committed publicly last year to donating thousands of dollars every year to organizations that help our awesome heroes. In effect, every time you buy one of my books, you're donating, as well. For this particular gift-card drive, I plan to match whatever my readers donate directly in monetary and gift card donations (up to $3,000, because I'm also in the advanced guard making monthly donations to the Wounded Warrior Project).

So far, we're at $364.36 (half from readers and half my matching donation). My goal (as you can see in the thermometer widget at upper right on my blog) is to collect/donate $6,000 (half from me and half from readers). All of those $10 or $25 cards will add up quickly because I'll immediately double each one in the first $3,000. Cards in higher denominations can be used to purchase eReaders, gaming systems, DVD players, and such for the common areas at the center. I'll tally up donations as quickly as possibly after the above events and update the widget. I wanna see Blue! (And I don't mean basketball, either!)

I'll be hand-carrying these gift cards and donations to Camp Pendleton sometime between May 7-9 (escorted on base by a wounded warrior amputee who is still active duty AND rides a Harley--no, I won't be riding on the back, but he's so awesome I can't wait to meet him!). I will make sure the people I talk with there know who these generous donations came from. I'll also take them any cards/letters/notes you send with your gift card or donation or to my mailbox.

I'm going to do a similar gift-card collection starting in July through early August before attending the Authors After Dark conference in Savannah Aug. 14-18. That drive will benefit a US Army wounded warrior project yet to be determined. (So far, all of the wounded warriors who have come to me to tell their stories have either been Navy, Marine, or Army. Of course, the Navy and Marines are treated in the same facilities, and since those books have been published, I chose to start with the Camp Pendleton care center.)

Thanks for supporting our heroes! God bless the troops--and your giving heart!

WIP It Wednesday: Damian Rescues Savannah (Masters at Arms)

First, just wanted to ask for your vote in the Cover of the Month contest. VOTE NOW THROUGH SATURDAY, NOV. 26 at http://yougottareadcovers.blogspot.com/ (#14 on list). If you love Master Adam's chest and this cover as much as *I* do, I'd appreciate your vote. I don't know the exact time voting ends, so vote early! Thanks so much for your consideration!


Now, in honor of that awesome cover, rather than another snippet from my upcoming release, I decided to go back to the beginning of Damian and Savannah's story, the Section Two prequel in Masters at Arms.

This is the scene after Damian has rescued Savannah (Savi) from the sadists at her father's hotel. (He's not aware that she's a sex slave for her father, but thinks she might be a call girl.) She's just awoken from an exhausted sleep to find a stranger (who looks like her fantasy idol, Orlando Bloom) in the bed and is now beginning to worry about what her father and his partner (Lyle) will do to punish her for losing two of their business clients (the sadists in the snippet). The "final plan" she refers to is her suicide, which she plans to carry out when she gets home, no longer able to continue to "live" the way she's been forced to live since childhood, but most especially since becoming a sex slave a year earlier.

What now? Lyle and her father would be furious. She’d never lost them a client before. Last night, she’d lost two. Her punishment would be severe. She opened her eyes and glanced toward the door. Where had Lyle gone? When would he be back? She supposed her father would send a car for her. They knew they didn’t have to worry about her running away. The threat of living a hellish life as a street whore would keep her tethered in her velvet chains.

Savannah began to shake.

“Shhh. It’s okay.” The man on the bed—Damián—reached out a hand to her, but she pulled her body away. He let his hand come to rest on the mattress between them, as if he were training a dog to get used to him by small degrees. His brown skin contrasted sharply with the white sheets. Exotic. So different from the men who could afford her.

No, he wasn’t her client. That she knew. So who was he? She shivered and returned his gaze, seeing regret, pity. She didn’t want or need anyone’s pity.

“I don’t know you.”

“I work here at the hotel.”

Oh, Lord! The bus boy! She remembered him from the restaurant. How had she come to be in bed with him? Had anything happened? Clearly, she’d zoned out. Had he forced himself on her while her mind was out of her body?

No. The concern in the man’s warm-chocolate eyes told her he wasn’t a threat. She didn’t think so, anyway. His pupils were so large, his eyes almost looked black. Her instincts regarding men were more than a little warped. Still, something began to melt inside her. The image of him barging into the room last night carrying a…a fire extinguisher? She tried to keep from smiling, but couldn’t help herself. So incongruous with the type of rescue she’d needed.

Damián raised an eyebrow, then smiled back. His white teeth against a bronzed face sent a flock of swallows to flight inside her stomach. She giggled.

“What’s so funny?”

“You, barging in here last night carrying that ridiculous fire extinguisher.”

“Someone yelled ‘fire.’”

“Well, I read once that no one comes when you yell rape.”

His face grew serious. “They didn’t—?”

She shook her head. “No. Against the rules.” Tears stung the backs of her eyelids. “No one’s ever come to my rescue before.” She turned away. Don’t let him get inside your head, Savi. This stranger was even more dangerous than the sadists. He made her feel vulnerable. She needed to keep her wits about her if she was going to keep the walls of her fortress intact.

Until she could get home and put her final plan into motion, she’d do well to remember that men weren’t safe or honorable.

But Damián had held her for hours without taking advantage of her. Amazing man.

She looked back at him. “Thank you.”

“De nada.”

Then she realized what his actions had cost him. “Oh, God. Your job.”

A bus boy probably needed every paycheck just to survive. She assessed him. He wore a polo uniform shirt—which he filled out better than any polo she’d ever seen—and inexpensive black jeans.

He shrugged, as if it didn’t matter. But she doubted he was truly that nonchalant. He’d be fired, if he hadn’t been already, all because of her. Unfair. Yet another victim of her father’s and Lyle’s ruthlessness. His face blurred as tears welled in her eyes. “I’m so sorry to have caused you so much trouble.”

He leaned closer. She didn’t back away this time, but her heart began beating faster.

“I’d do it again,” he whispered. “No regrets, Savannah. No one should hurt you like that.”

She closed her eyelids and swallowed. Damián’s fingertip brushed away a tear that rolled from the corner of her eye. His hand felt warm against her chilled skin. A jolt of electricity zapped her clit—and not the kind of zap the sadists had delivered, either. Her eyes opened wider. No man had ever caused a sexual response in her.

When he pulled his hand back, she fought the urge to lean toward him. How could she feel so safe with this stranger?

Dangerous. She needed to get away before he got under her skin. She instinctively knew that opening herself up to his kindness would just result in even more intense pain when she left him to return to Master. Her life, her body, were not hers.

“I have to get home.”

Damian and Savannah (now Savi) will reunite briefly in Nobody's Hero (due out in December). Their romance will come out in February, Nobody's Perfect, as my two most broken souls find love and happiness with each other—at last. 

My writing style is more of a SERIAL than a series--complete with cliffhangers and characters who continue to work on their relationship issues in subsequent novels. (Yes, the heroes and heroines from earlier romances will have recurring roles as they progress toward their ultimate Happily Ever Afters). So skipping any of the novel-length installments will make the subsequent romance subplots in the "serial" less enjoyable.

But the good thing is that there are ONLY two novels out so far, so it will be easy to catch up! See below for ordering details!

You won't enjoy Nobody's Hero as much if you haven't read Masters at Arms and Nobody's Angel first, because Adam and Karla's relationship actually began nine years early in sections one and five of Masters—and continued to grow in Angel. 

The 115,000-word novel, second in the Rescue Me series,  

Nobody's Angel is available for $2.99 NOW at
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords,
BookStrand, and All Romance eBooks.

 

MASTERS AT ARMS (only 99 cents!), the

introduction and first novel in the RESCUE ME series,

is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, 

All Romance eBooks, Bookstrand,

and at Smashwords. 

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Six Sentence: Savannah's Despair (MASTERS AT ARMS)

WARNING: Something VERY different this week from my previous humorous SSS postings. This Six is from Chapter Two of MASTERS AT ARMS. Savannah Gentry, who is 19 in this scene, is an incest victim of eleven years and "living" as a sex slave to her father and now his business partner, Lyle. They use her to give sexual favors to potential clients who have an interest in sadism.

As she awaits her two next clients, she realizes Lyle is becoming more and more like her father. This doesn't bode well for her future and she begins planning her escape--and revenge. This is just before Damian comes into her life.

She wouldn’t be surprised if Lyle was slated to inherit her body after her father died. No, there wouldn’t be a “slave clause” in his public will. But she was certain her father would never release his hold over her, even from beyond the grave.

Her chest muscles clenched, squeezing the meager amount of air from her lungs. Some days, she actually welcomed death over continuing to live this way. Ah, the ultimate betrayal of the obedient slave—to execute the body the Master thought He owned.

Needless to say, it has been an intense week working on revisions to this chapter! I wish I could start writing Savannah's happily-ever-after story (NOBODY'S PERFECT due out in February 2012) sooner! Luckily, she and Damian will reunite in the November release of NOBODY'S HERO. But these two wounded characters will need more than one book to heal all the hurts they've suffered in life.

In the meantime, if you want to leave on a lighter note, here's a glimpse at Savannah's and Damian's perfect day together at the beach, which takes place later in this chapter. 

Kallypso Masters currently is working on a four-book series with prequel MASTERS AT ARMS due out in early August 2011, NOBODY'S ANGEL by late August 2011, NOBODY'S HERO in November 2011, and NOBODY'S PERFECT in February 2012. 

Kally loves to add new friends on Facebook. Or follow her on Twitter.